Joint Venture Launches Next Generation Shipping Platform

NEW YORK, NY – 13 June, 2016 – Long Island based Trinity Group, headed by 40-year logistics veteran Francis Vena, joined forces with software disruptors FP Group (CEO Jose Lerebours) and Onnik (CEO Nick Mouradian) to launch a new Less-Than-Truck-Load (LTL) focused shipping platform, CargoSaaS. For the first time ever, this no-contract portal does more than providing freight rates – it recommends the best carrier for each individual shipment based on 35 performance indicators such as route specific on-time performance, loss/damage ratio, equipment availability, even weather conditions.

“Anyone can run a rate engine,” says Vena, who authored early versions of the platform himself. “But we know that there’s more to a business decision than price alone.” With competitive pricing from his truck brokerage business in tow, he was looking to translate his market experience into an online portal, which ultimately meant to eliminate expensive manual interventions from the standard process while keeping the platform relatable. Onnik’s Nick Mouradian realized that clients first needed a benchmark from within their comfort zone and enabled customers to upload their existing tariffs. “We’re not a broker, forcing a carrier portfolio down the shippers’ throats,” he says, “we want to give users a choice of their own contracts in addition to a selection of well-vetted regional and national carriers competing for loads in real time.” Clients can book & track all of their shipments through the platform. Vena adds, “we’re not looking to replace existing relationships. Many of our clients continue using their carriers through our portal.”

CargoSaaS is designed to be a transparency tool. “Playing with an open hand of cards [as it relates to rates] is important,” says FP Group CEO Jose Lerebours, “but we needed to offer more than pricing information to enable our clients to make well-educated decisions.” The task of a giving users the know-how of a freight broker was a simple concept from the perspective of a process-driven mind like Lerebours’, but live-feeding metrics like route-specific on-time performance, claim ratios and lead times into a real-time environment proved a complex challenge. The platform queries a multitude of key performance indicators (KPIs) along with rate calculations. “It slows down our response times by a few seconds compared to our purely rate-driven competition, but it adds an incredible value perspective.”

StartupLogistics’s Markus Ellenbeck consults the consortium on user experience (UX) and analytics. “The platform was created based on technology,” Ellenbeck says, “the user interface needed some refining to encourage operator adaption.” Even post launch, the team is working on a list of enhancements: “We’re aiming to offer clients new meaningful reporting dimensions, such as valuation of assets in transit.”